OK so I have no idea what the general consensus and opinion is of this con on here, but I need to share my opinion and experiences because this Con is nowhere near as great and amazing as everyone seems to think it is.

For starters the programming is terrible, and the way they treat their panelists is absolutely disgusting. The majority of the programming is guest run only as opposed to fan run content, which not only makes for a much more boring experience for people who have no interest in guests, but also means that the ticket price is much higher as the con has to pay for all the guests they're bringing in. The panelists who ARE actually accepted are treated very poorly. Myself and several of my friends were denied running our panels because we had either run them at Anime Evolution of Cos & Effect in the past, and were only told a few days in advance of the con that we were not allowed to be panelists. When asked for a ticket refund we were refused. Also, there have been instances where they have not allowed a panel/event to be run at their con due to the fact it had been run at other cons, and rather than accept the fact that the event organizer would rather run the event elsewhere they stole the event and very poorly renamed it. Changing the Walkoff to the Walkon? You're not fooling anybody.

Another issue I've had with them is their press, and their inability to accept that Cosplay is not Consent. I did hang out around the outside of the convention, one day in cosplay and one day not (however I was with my group of friends who are a VERY large Shingeki cosplay group). On the day where I was in cosplay press photographers were constantly taking photos of me without my permission, and I asked them to please ask first. I was also there for GISHWHES, so for anyone who wanted a picture of me the "price" was for me to take a picture with them for the competition. Of course, none of the press photographers went along with the request and were mad at me when I wouldn't allow for pictures. Then on the day I wasn't there in cosplay I was, again, getting a group shot for GISHWHES. For those who don't know the GISHWHES rules you are not allowed to have photos of your entries outside of where you are hosting the image, otherwise your team could be disqualified. Again, a press photographer was trying to take a picture, and I kept telling him no this one shot was for competition, and that after that he could ask the cosplayers for consent. He ignored me, so I blocked his shots. He then, again without my consent, took a picture of me and told me he was going to report me to the convention and make sure I was permanently banned.

I'm not the first one to be banned either. There are many of us who are panelists or volunteers/staff who help out at Anime Evolution and Cos and Effect who are banned from helping at Anime Revolution, and are accused of being spies for those cons. I'm sorry, but if you're accusing me of being a spy, then why are you stealing panels from us?

Overall I am absolutely disgusted with this convention, the way it's run, and I really hope that people will eventually see how terrible this con really is behind the facade, and will hopefully not waste their money on it again.